Well Worth the Earworm

Spinning fiber that has been in the stash for a while is always such a delight, especially when it's not from a fiber club and is instead something that I've picked out myself. My most recent spin is just such a project. I bought the fiber back in November 2018 and even surprised myself at the time because it was just gray, not dyed at all. But I was drawn in by the depth of gray and the sparkle of it. It was a 40% Merino/40% Shetland/20% nylon blend from HipStrings, from Jill's Favorite Things series -- a bunch of custom fiber blends inspired by things mentioned in the song from The Sound of Music. This one was Silver-White Winters, and it was perfectly designed to fit that name. I've spent the last little while finally spinning it up after discovering that it had been unfortunately munched on a bit by some critters, but most of it was just fine. I decided that I wanted a lofty, imperfect yarn, so though the prep was combed top, I spun it semi-woolen. When all the singles were done, I wound them off the bobbin onto my ball winder and then plied both ends together.

Here's what it look like freshly skeined, just before it got a nice soak in some hot, sudsy water:

You can see the fresh plying twist still in it -- that's because the twist in the plying direction is the most recent and thus the most active, but washing it "wakes up" the spinning twist and allows all the twist, in both directions, to even out. It also looks a bit wiry, but it did fluff up nicely when it was washed.

You might be able to see some of the sparkle here if you look closely, but certainly you can see that it's more of a rustic spin than what I typically do, and I actually really like it. There was a time when spinning long draw stressed me out, type A personality that I am, because it was never as consistent or controlled as I usually like my handspun to be. But as I get older, I find that I appreciate yarn that has character a lot more and find the stuff that's too perfect to look a bit sterile and overprocessed. Perhaps that doesn't make much sense, but I'm not questioning it too much. I really enjoyed the easy spinning -- woolen spinning is so much faster than my usual short forward draw -- and am delighted with the finished yarn. It's still hanging to dry and it's late in the afternoon on a gloomy day, so I'll share it at a later date. And if you now have "My Favorite Things" stuck in your head, the least I can say is that there are worse things and you have good company!